Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan is a country located in the Caucasus region of Asia and Eastern Europe, with its capital at Baku. Azerbaijan briefly gained independence from the Russian Empire in 1918 before being conquered by the Soviet Union in 1920, and it was ruled as the Azerbaijan SSR until 30 August 1991. Azerbaijan went to war with neighboring Armenia over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, fighting Armenia until 1994, when a ceasefire was declared; since then, Armenia and Azerbaijan have engaged in some deadly border clashes. Today, the country has a high rate of literacy and economic development and a low unemployment rate. In 2016, the nation had a population of 9,754,830 people, with 98% of the population being Muslim (92% Shia, 8% Sunni), 1.1% Christian, .5% other faiths, and .4% atheist.